When Columbia County arrests from the week of and through the long July Fourth holiday were made public, 18 of the 78 arrests (23 percent) were for driving under the influence of alcohol/drugs, including two while piloting a watercraft.

With the World Cup soccer action taking place, it takes me back to two of the biggest mistakes I think I’ve made in my life as a sports fan.

(In light of Wednesday’s federal trademark board decision, this portion of the column will be sanitized for political correctness.)

In 1988, while in the Navy and homeported out of San Diego, I had the oppportunity to watch my favorite professional football team from Washington, D.C., at the Super Bowl. I chose to save my money and not buy admittance from a ticket scalp– I mean off-site ticket procurer – a move I always regretted.

The place to start would be baseball as I kept finding out things as I pursued a few stories on this week’s page.

With Harlem High School graduates Derek Beasley (2010) and Josh Wirsu (2011) taken in the Major League first-year player draft last week, it of course begged the question, who else from Harlem had ever been drafted?

When Harlem baseball coach Jimmie Lewis texted me two names, the second being Mike Ramsey, I was taken aback by the first one – Mike Leverett.

Somebody asked me last week when does the 2014-15 school year start, which I thought was a bit much seeing as how the school year just ended.

But it got me thinking about the upcoming fall season and as expected football schedules for public schools could be found on the Georgia High School Association’s website. I was able to corral private school schedules as well.

2015 will mark the third consecutive year that Lakeside High School will have a different head baseball coach.

Jay Matthews was the head coach for the 2013 season as the Panthers won the Region 2-AAAAA title and advanced to the state tournament. Matthews resigned shortly after the team’s season reached its conclusion.

Brad Freeman took over as head man in June 2013 and the Panthers finished 11-16 in 2014, advancing to the state tournament once more.

During the final week of the school year, Freeman tendered his resignation leaving the position vacant yet again.

Last week while listing team results, I had the Greenbrier girls lacrosse team record wrong. It should have been listed as 8-6. Sorry about that, girls.

High school lacrosse has been picking up, and our athletes are making their mark at the collegiate level as well. Clay Singletary (Greenbrier) and Justin Wells (Lakeside) are part of the Reinhardt University Eagles which just finished their most successful season with a 15-4 record.